Gaut to give presentation March 25

Dr. Greg Gaut (History dDepartment) will speak about “Red Stars over Minnesota: The Gorbechevs visit the Twin Cities” on Wednesday, March 25, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the faculty dining room. Let the cashier know you are going to the FDC presentation and then proceed through the lunch line.

Gaut’s presentation details Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev’s visit to the Twin Cities after a summit meeting with George Bush in June, 1990. Gov. Rudy Perpich hoped the visit would aid in his reelection campaign, corporations hoped to find economic opportunities in the Soviet Union, and average Minnesotans hoped that the end of the Cold War would lead to U.S.-Soviet cooperation on the environment, nuclear disarmament, and poverty. Things turned out differently.

Supported by a Summer Faculty Research Grant, Dr. Gaut researched this article at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul and the Iron Range Interpretive Center in Chisholm, MN (where the Perpich papers are archived). With his co-author Marsha Neff, he prepared a manuscript which reconstructs and interprets this day when Minnesota held the attention of the world's press. After peer review, Minnesota History accepted the article for publication in its December 2009 issue.